DALLAS -- Coming into Game 5 of these NBA Finals, it may have been hard to remember that the Mavericks, over the course of the playoffs, were one of the most offensively efficient teams in the league. In the first three rounds, Dallas was about as good as it gets when it came to execution, wearing down the Blazers, Lakers and Thunder with a steady, reliable offensive barrage. They won 12 of their first 15 postseason games, and in doing so, they were easy on the eyes and fun to watch.

Here in the Finals, though, playing against the Miami Heat’s very active ball-hawking defense, the Mavericks had been an eyesore—in the first four games, they turned the ball over at an alarming rate (13.5 per game), they clanked open shots (41.4 percent shooting) and their offense at times grew pond-water stagnant (just 16.8 assists and 87.8 points per game).

That all changed in Game 5. For the first time this series, the Mavericks were able to force a high-scoring pace, and they did so when they most needed it, pushing the Heat to the brink of elimination with a 112-103 win that saw Dallas shoot 56.5 percent from the field, 68.4 percent from the 3-point line and record a series-high 23 assists.

“I thought we got in the fast break a little bit early on,” Mavs star Dirk Nowitzki said. “That was good. We had some good looks on the fast break, and we were able to knock some shots down. I thought in the first four games, we looked at the film, and we stepped into some pretty good shots. We just, for some reason, weren’t knocking them down like we did in the first three series. If we had struggled shooting the ball like that in the first three series, I don’t know if we would have gotten here.”

Ah, yes, remember those heady days in the first three rounds of the playoffs? Those Mavericks shot 46.3 percent from the field, and 38.8 percent from the 3-point line. They averaged 99.7 points and 20.9 assists.

For the first time in the Finals, we saw the Mavericks playing at that level.

All too often in this series the Mavericks have been a Dirk-centric team. Nowitzki did lead the team with 29 points, but he was bolstered by 21 points from Jason Terry and 17 from guard J.J. Barea, who had his Finals breakout game. Tyson Chandler and Jason Kidd each had 13, and over the course of the Mavericks’ game-ending 17-4 run, it wasn’t strictly Nowitzki carrying this bunch. He had four points in that stretch, but Terry had eight and Kidd had five—with each making critical late 3-pointers.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who have been terrific finishers for us,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “A lot of times, our game becomes very balanced. ... That’s kind of defined us as a team. There’s no set formula, other than we need each other. And we need to play a certain way, and we need to play with a certain collective intelligence and will.”

Carlisle and the Mavericks have to hope that Game 5 sets a tone that can be carried back to Miami for the final two games (or the final one game, if Dallas wins on Sunday). But even through the first four games of this series, the Mavs played Miami’s game—deliberate, slow, physical, grinding—and still were able to come out with two wins.

If the pace in Miami is anything like it was in the finale here in Dallas, advantage Mavericks. “That isn’t our niche,” Heat forward Chris Bosh said. “That isn’t what we do. We’re going to have to do a better job of initially starting the defense. We saw what they’re capable of.”